(Part 1 of 2)

The state of Washington is home to some of the world wide web's major players. Even Bill Gates, the U.S.' richest man, hails from Medina, Washington Microsoft, his company, is based out of Redmond. Whitepages.com, Amazon.com, Classmates.com and Marchex also call Washington their home. The fact then that over one and a half million residents are owed an excess of 700 million dollars in unclaimed property in Washington State is ironic, sense searching for unclaimed money and property can be done on the web from the comfort of their home or even the local Starbucks.

According to the Washington State Dept. Of Revenue web site, typical unclaimed property includes abandoned insurance proceeds, bank accounts, bonds, stocks, safe deposit box contents, mutual funds, uncashed payroll, utility and phone company deposits, traveler's checks, insurance, and other types of financial assets. Unclaimed money doesn't include most tangible assets such as vehicles and real estate. State laws require banks, insurance companies, retailers, credit unions, utilities, corporations, and government entities to turn Washington unclaimed money and property over to the state if their owners can not be located after three to five years (depending on the type of property). The State's Unclaimed Funds Law states: "State law protects unclaimed property until it can be returned. There is no time limit for filing a claim and rightful owners or their heirs can claim property reported since 1955. The state may auction the content of safe deposit boxes, however, if not claimed within five years."

Washington was actually the first state to have a working system for claiming lost money and property. In fact, the Washington State Dept. of Revenue recently received the Award for Outstanding Management and Organizational Initiative for its 'Unclaimed Property E-Claim System'. The amount waiting to be reunited with their owners still exceeds 500 million dollars however, despite the unclaimed property program being administered to seek out more owners of Washington unclaimed property and that makes claiming easier for them.

(to be continued)

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The largest pot of

$50,000 lottery prize still
The lone

How to Find
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State gives owners of unclaimed property a chance to retrieve it
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